EVENTS TO FOLLOW ON JANUARY 18

(UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th January, 2022) atrani will reportedly be accompanied by ministers of oil and gas, health, and planning. The visit was initially reported to begin on Sunday and last through Thursday, but a Russian diplomatic source told Sputnik over the weekend that no dates had been fixed.

GERMAN, NATO LEADERS TO MEET IN BERLIN

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will welcome NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg to Berlin for security talks on Tuesday. The two last met in Brussels on December 10, days after Scholz took office.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT TO VOTE ON NEW PRESIDENT

The European Parliament will meet in Strasbourg, France to elect a new president following the death of Italy's David Sassoli at the end of his term last week.

A candidate needs an absolute majority in the 705-seat EU body to win. Sassoli's vice-president Roberta Metsola, of the European People's Party, is seen as the frontrunner. She is challenged by the Greens' Alice Bah Kuhnke, the Left Group's Sira Rego, and conservative Kosma Zlotowski.

BULGARIAN PRIME MINISTER TO VISIT NORTH MACEDONIA

Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov will travel to North Macedonia's capital of Skopje for negotiations on the Balkan nation's bid to join the European Union.

The visit comes a day after the Macedonian parliament elected Socialist leader Dimitar Kovacevski as prime minister. He will be tasked with convincing Bulgaria to lift its veto on the start of EU-North Macedonia accession talks which it imposed on its neighbor over a dispute about their shared history.�

SERBIAN PRESIDENT TO VISIT TURKEY

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic is expected to visit Turkey at the invitation of his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He will participate in the third meeting of Turkey-Serbia High Cooperation Council to discuss the bilateral relations and their prospects.